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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27483943">Day 348</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/HashtagLEH'>HashtagLEH</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Something Like a Family [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stranger Things (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Billy Hargrove &amp; Eleven | Jane Hopper Friendship, Billy Hargrove Is Bad at Feelings, Billy Hargrove Needs Love, Canon Compliant, Canonical Child Abuse, Child Abuse, Eleven | Jane Hopper Needs A Hug, Gay Billy Hargrove, Gen, Hurt Eleven | Jane Hopper, Jim "Chief" Hopper Tries, Past Child Abuse, Period Typical Attitudes, Protective Billy Hargrove, Protective Jim "Chief" Hopper, Protective Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Soft Billy Hargrove, Stranger Things 2, at least it could be, but I see it diverging, but it could also be:, but it is pretty frank, it depends on how far I take this idea, it's mentioned - Freeform, it's mentioned in passing but it's there, just really not the best, just this fic is technically canon compliant, not important to the story but again, not terrible though, pre-stranger things 2, the period talk is not in detail</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:34:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,298</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27483943</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/HashtagLEH</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>El is certain she's dying. She's bleeding and in pain and Hopper isn't picking up on the radio, so she runs out of the cabin to find him.</p><p>Billy came out to be alone one day before he would have to join the kids of Hawkins High. El stumbles upon his car.</p><p>*</p><p>Or, El gets her period for the first time, panics, and then causes Billy to panic because he too thinks she's dying before he realizes he's going to have to explain women's bodies to a twelve-year-old he doesn't even know the name of. Somehow, despite not knowing why he even bothers, it turns out okay.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eleven | Jane Hopper &amp; Billy Hargrove</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Something Like a Family [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009263</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>288</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 348</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I did not think that this would be my first Stranger Things fic. I have two other WIPs that I started before this one, but the muse was more insistent with this one, and here we are.</p><p>A couple of warnings: it is implied that Billy has traded sexual favors with cops in California before to get out of charges, but it is a blip of a phrase within a sentence. Nothing is in detail, but I thought I should warn you guys just in case. Also, all canonical warnings apply, as far as abuse and slurs and such. (Actually now that I'm typing this I think I deleted the phrase with the slur to make it more vague, but I'm not sure. In any case, the period-typical phobias are there, especially in regards to Neil.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She didn’t know what was happening to her. This had never happened to her before, not in all of the experiments and tests that she’d been through most of her life. She was certain that something was going wrong, with her body or with the barrier – maybe it had opened and <em>something </em>was causing this?</p><p>She held back a whimper of pain, crouching over as though that would make it stop. Even with no one around to hear her, it was a deeply ingrained instinct to hide her pain, because when she was vocal Papa always looked so <em>disappointed </em>–</p><p>She shoved the thought aside, because she couldn’t be thinking about Papa right now. She couldn’t reach Hop on the radio, and she had been trying since the clock had read eight-one-three, and now it was nine-five-four and she didn’t know if something had <em>happened </em>to him or if he was just <em>busy </em>and forgot to turn on his radio when he left that morning. It had happened a couple of times before, but she had only found out because he had double checked that she was okay as soon as he remembered. She didn’t know when he might remember today, but she couldn’t wait for him.</p><p>Sniffing against the tears rising in her eyes, she firmed her resolve. She couldn’t wait for Jim to contact her, because this might be something <em>really serious</em>, and she didn’t want him to come home to discover that she’d died curled up on the couch, blood staining everything.</p><p>She pulled on her shoes and then one of Hop’s old jackets he’d given her, because it was starting to get cold again and she liked being warm. Then she exited the cabin, leaving the property on her own for the first time in months.</p><p>***</p><p>Billy hated Hawkins. He hated that it was such a big geographical area, but with only enough people in it to fill one apartment complex back in California. It was a place where everyone would know everyone, and knew everyone’s business but still pretended they were polite company who wouldn’t <em>ever </em>gossip about someone’s home life.</p><p>It was a Friday. He and Max would be going to school on Monday, in the middle of the school year, and he would be flashy and cocky so that no one would care to know why they had moved to the small town in <em>October</em>.</p><p>He gritted his teeth, because Max had better <em>damn</em> well keep her mouth shut about the why. It was <em>her </em>fault they’d moved out here, because like a <em>fucking</em> idiot she had asked him about Harry within hearing range of Neil, as though she really didn’t know what Neil would do to him when it was confirmed what he’d suspected all along about his piece of shit son. She was thirteen, not a fucking kid – she knew, and he was glad she’d finally stopped with the fucking <em>useless </em>apologies and returned his anger at her in kind.</p><p>And then this morning, he’d mouthed off at Neil for something stupid that he couldn’t even remember now, and he’d been kicked – or rather, <em>slapped </em>– out the door with a directive not to come back until he had learned some respect.</p><p>He touched his thumb to his lip, even though it had long since stopped bleeding. Didn’t really even sting anymore, just tugged a little when he pursed his lips around the cigarette between his fingers.</p><p>He was in his car, he wasn’t sure how far out of Hawkins. He was pretty sure he was technically still within the town’s limits, but he was also off a dirt road in the middle of the damn forest, where he expected no cop was going to come by and try and bust him for possession or some shit. He’d sweet talked his way out of it enough times, or given some of them certain <em>favors </em>to be let off the hook, but he really wasn’t in the mood today. He just wanted to be left alone. Good thing he was in the middle of the fucking forest where no one walked.</p><p>He turned down the music a little when his head started to ache with the combination of the concussion he’d been left with since Neil’s “lesson” before they’d left California, and the smoke that had been curling in his lungs constantly for over an hour now. He rolled down his window to clear some of the haze in the air, coughed a little when the cold air outside reached his lungs. He missed California, where it wouldn’t be this damn <em>cold </em>for another couple of months. He would need to get a warmer jacket soon.</p><p>Suddenly his ears picked up the sound of leaves and twigs crunching, like someone was walking over them without regard to the noise it made. He turned down the music till he could just barely make out the lyrics, sitting up a little to be sure that it wasn’t a curious cop after all. He hoped it was just some fucking woodland creature.</p><p>The sound had come from behind the car, and he didn’t turn around, instead relying on his rearview mirror. A little startled, he discovered that it wasn’t either of his suspicions. It was a little girl, one who looked practically distraught, and definitely afraid as she hugged her arms around herself.</p><p>Something in him gave an insistent little <em>jolt</em>, when he saw how she was wearing clothes that clearly weren’t hers. She must’ve been about Max’s age, maybe a little younger, and Billy was an asshole but he wasn’t <em>heartless</em>, so before he knew what he was doing he was opening his door and sliding out, turning to face her as she seemed to notice him.</p><p>“Hey little lady,” he drawled, and he unfortunately sounded creepy even to his own ears. He worked to soften his tone a little when he continued, “You lost?” He closed the door behind him and leaned against his car, to show that he wasn’t coming closer. He didn’t want to scare her, after all.</p><p>The girl stopped, her eyes wide on him and very wary. “Lost?” she repeated, like she didn’t know the meaning of the word.</p><p>Billy was about to reply sarcastically, fear of intimidating her be damned, but then a gust of wind picked up, brushing aside the bottom of her jacket, and his eyes caught on her exposed light grey sweatpants. Or more specifically, at the red staining down her front. It was only a glimpse, but it looked like it had reached her thigh and that suggested a <em>lot </em>of blood flow.</p><p>“Holy – <em>shit</em>,” he hissed, mind whirling with possibilities at what she might be running from, taking in anew the way her arms clutched about her middle. “You’re <em>bleeding</em>. I have bandages in the trunk – do you need help?”</p><p>The girl stared at him unnervingly for a moment, before the wariness seemed to dissipate all at once, leaving behind only the fear of whatever she was running from. “Need – hop,” she said haltingly, taking a few steps closer. “Think I’m dying.”</p><p>“You really <em>shouldn’t </em>be hopping right now – that’ll just make you bleed more,” Billy said, feeling wrong-footed. “I can take you to the hospital – there must be one in town…”</p><p>“<em>No </em>hospital,” the girl said, expression hardening, and shit if Billy couldn’t relate to that feeling, that insistence that he couldn’t go to a hospital or people would <em>ask questions</em> and <em>find out </em>and nothing would happen and it would be <em>so much worse</em>.</p><p>“Okay, no hospital,” Billy said, putting up his hands, hoping to appease. “Your wound, you’re the boss.” He took a last puff of his cigarette, more for something to do than actual desire for the hit it gave, and then flicked it off into the damp leaves before putting one hand on his hip and the other on the top of his car.</p><p>“So, since you’re the boss,” he drawled, “What do you want to do?”</p><p>“Need hop,” the girl said, looking determined. “He will know – what to do.”</p><p>“Hop – is a person?” Billy clarified, confused. The hell kind of a nickname was that?</p><p>“Hopper,” she said with a nod.</p><p>Oh, it was a shortened last name. That made more sense, but what was her relation to this guy? A little girl giving a nickname to a grown man suggested a closer-but-still-kind-of-distanced relationship, and if she was going for that type of guy for help…what was she caught up in? Was this guy – this “Hopper” – even safe? This, combined with her wearing a grown man’s clothes, and clearly not socialized much, if her speech was anything to go by, didn’t add up to a good picture, and he wasn’t sure finding her “Hop” would be a good thing.</p><p>“Okay, how about you tell me what’s going on, and I’ll see if I can help before this Hopper guy?” Billy suggested. Christ, he was way too soft sometimes. He should just sneer and wish her a sarcastic good luck, be on his way to some other place where he really <em>could </em>be alone, let her deal with everything herself.</p><p>But she was young, and little, and maybe he just wanted to make sure the people she lived with weren’t hurting her, in a way no one had cared to spend time with him when he had longed for the help. So he really couldn’t help pushing the issue, not until he was sure that she would be okay, that she would be <em>safe</em>.</p><p>The girl stared at him for a long moment, huge brown eyes seeming to pierce into him as she seemed to evaluate him.</p><p>“You have bad Papa, too,” she said, sounding suddenly very wise.</p><p>It took a moment for the words to reach his brain, for him to understand that rather than answering his suggestion with agreement or otherwise, she had somehow guessed or surmised that Neil liked to slap him around. And the instant response to that was anger, was fury that someone would call him out like that, would imply that he was <em>weak </em>in allowing it to happen, or suggest that he deserved it, and he straightened to his full height, ready to give the little girl a biting response, something to <em>hurt</em> –</p><p>And then his brain caught up to the last word, to that “too” tacked on at the end, and the red haze faded from his eyes for him to notice that the girl had disappeared from in front of him.</p><p>He blinked, glancing around, catching sight of her head of curly brown hair peeking out over the top of the passenger side, before the door opened and she climbed into the passenger seat.</p><p>Shaking his head to himself, he turned to his own door, opening it and sliding into his seat. He cranked up the heat, because the girl was looking a little blue around the lips and he really didn’t know how long she had been outside, but she really wasn’t dressed for the weather. The jacket she wore looked more like a thicker flannel shirt, and it was windy and damp, which really wouldn’t help any.</p><p>“So your dad – did this to you?” Billy asked quietly, a little stilted but concerned enough to try and push through it.</p><p>The girl shook her head in the negative, though. “Jim is not bad. <em>Papa </em>is bad. But he’s dead.”</p><p>Billy didn’t have the time to untangle that, or figure out who this new guy was that she brought up. There were more pressing concerns to deal with first. “Okay. But – you’re bleeding. Tell me what happened.” It came out a little harsher than he’d intended, closer to how he talked to Max, but the girl didn’t seem to mind or even notice.</p><p>“I was okay when I woke up,” she began readily, tightening her arms around her middle again, “And after Hop went to work at seven-three-five. At eight-zero-two my stomach started hurting. I went to the bathroom at eight-one-one. There was blood. I think I’m dying. I tried calling Hopper but I think he forgot to turn on his radio again. At nine-five-six I left to go find him so he can help.”</p><p>Through her stilted recitation, Billy steadily felt his disbelief begin to grow. Now he closed his eyes, praying to a God he no longer believed in for patience dealing with this little girl who, he reminded himself, had no idea what was happening and so her reaction <em>was </em>valid. Still another part of him was kicking his past self for insisting on helping her, because he never in his <em>life </em>would have expected to have to explain this to anyone and now this rando was dumped in his lap with tears in her eyes and trust in her heart that he was going to help her deal with it.</p><p>Also, what was stopping him from just telling her she’d be fine, and dumping her off somewhere that he didn’t have to deal with a little girl’s problems? He could just bring her to Max, dump the responsibility on a girl who’d started <em>her </em>period several months before and who would definitely be old hat at it by now, who wouldn’t feel so awkward at teaching everything to a perfect stranger.</p><p>Well, he thought that maybe it was the girl’s eyes that stopped him, so afraid but trusting that he would help her. Also the fact that he had been willing to patch her up when he thought she’d been <em>stabbed</em> or some shit, and was this really so different just because the bleeding happened naturally? Maybe, maybe not.</p><p>He gripped his steering wheel in both hands, tight enough that he could see the whites of his knuckles. He banged his head gently against the wheel once, before sitting up, releasing the wheel, and turning to the small form next to him, surrendered to the fact that he was going to have to explain this to her and help her out, because obviously no one else was up for the job.</p><p>“What’s your name, kid?” he asked her, because he may as well know it, with how personal he was about to get with her. “How old are you?”</p><p>“Ele…” she cut herself off, and corrected, “El. I’m twelve.”</p><p>Billy thought she might have been about to say she was eleven, wasn’t sure why it was better that she was twelve, but if she wanted to be called El, oh well. Maybe it was short for Eleanor and she hated the name. Not his business.</p><p>“Okay, El,” Billy said, taking a breath, wishing for some alcohol because all the smokes in the <em>world</em> couldn’t prepare him for this conversation. “First off, you’re gonna be fine. All girls bleed – like <em>that</em> – about every month. It sucks and it hurts and there’s not much you can do about it at your age but deal with it.”</p><p>He then gave her as brief an explanation as he could manage, fighting with a blush when she asked him questions like, “But <em>why</em> does it happen?” and comments like, “I don’t want to have a baby though. Can I turn it off?”</p><p>He found that her frank acceptance of everything he told her actually helped him feel less awkward about it. By the time the bulk of the explanation had passed, as well as the Q&amp;A that accompanied it, he even volunteered information like how chocolate and sweets helped, and when she asked if Eggos counted, he just snorted a laugh and agreed, amused anew at the practically <em>devious </em>look that lit her eyes with this information.</p><p>“If your ‘Hopper’ is at work, you’re going to need some supplies in the meantime,” Billy told her. “You wanna come with me to the store to get some?” He’d had to pick up some things for Max a couple of times, when they’d run out and Susan and Neil were gone, so he was fairly certain that El could use the same sort of things with no trouble. And he really didn’t want to leave her in the middle of the forest while he picked the things up – besides the fact that it was <em>cold</em>, he still wasn’t sure about the whole situation where she was apparently left alone for hours at a time, most of the day, where she could wander around the forest as she pleased. He was glad that someone with meaner, <em>sicker</em> plans for a scared little girl hadn’t found her first, and he didn’t want to tempt fate leaving her alone again.</p><p>“I’m not supposed to go to town,” El told him uncertainly, fingers playing with the edges of the sleeves that even rolled up hung over her hands. “People aren’t supposed to see me. Bad things will happen.”</p><p>Billy stilled at her words, suspicions rising anew against this “Hopper” guy whom she apparently lived with. Apparently her now-dead “Papa” had hurt her, but just because someone wasn’t raising a hand didn’t mean there weren’t <em>other </em>ways to hurt someone. Ways that could scar much more deeply than a ring scraped across a cheekbone.</p><p>“El,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “This ‘Hopper’ guy that you live with. Is there anything that he does that you wish he didn’t do? Anything that makes you sad or hurts your feelings or makes you feel uncomfortable?”</p><p>El frowned grumpily. “He goes to work a lot,” she says. “He says I can’t see Mike or my friends. I have to practice my words. I’m alone a lot. That makes me sad. I wish he didn’t do that.”</p><p>And that – yes, that’s problematic, but not exactly what he’s looking for, so he continues, presses, “Does he ever – touch you in certain places, or say anything – <em>strange </em>– or play games with you that you’re not supposed to tell anyone else about?”</p><p>El’s grumpy frown shifts to one of confusion, and she turns to look at him like <em>he’s </em>the weird one for asking these questions. “No.”</p><p>“And he doesn’t hurt you or make you feel unsafe?” Billy presses.</p><p>El begins to look uncomfortable, amidst her confusion. “No. I know I’m safe. It’s just boring. Lonely.”</p><p>“Why doesn’t he want people to see you?” Billy finally just asks straight out, because he feels like they’re talking in circles with no end in sight, and it’s beginning to strain on his patience.</p><p>“The bad people will want me,” El says. “Not safe. Can’t know I’m alive.”</p><p>That cleared up exactly zero, but Billy supposed he could tentatively go along with it until he learned otherwise.</p><p>“Okay,” he said. “I don’t want to leave you out here alone though, kid. You could stay in the car while I run inside to get things for you.”</p><p>“People can’t see me,” El reminded him, as though he’d forgotten in the past few seconds.</p><p>“They won’t – here,” Billy cut himself off, getting out of the car to get to his trunk. He had a couple of blankets stashed back there for when he had to sleep in his car, and he grabbed those, shoving his weed further into the wheel of his spare tire, now that the blankets weren’t covering it. He closed the trunk and climbed back into the car, passing the blankets over to the small brunette as he closed the driver side door behind him.</p><p>“When we get around people, you can huddle up in those – make it look like you’re cold. No one will look twice at you,” he promised. “Now buckle up. We’ll see if we can find anything in this backwater town.”</p><p>***</p><p>He got some looks at the store, but he was pretty sure that it was solely because he was clearly a new face amidst familiar ones that everyone there had grown up with. He was an oddity; Neil hadn’t yet started his new job, so Billy wasn’t even sure that anyone knew yet that new people had moved to town.</p><p>He grabbed some pads and Motrin for El, and a heat pack for the cramping that was similar enough to the one Susan had bought for Max that he figured it was fine for El to use. He slipped that into the inside pocket of his jacket, as it was the most expensive item, and after picking up a box of Eggos – because El had specifically mentioned those so they were probably a favorite – he grabbed some chocolate on his way to checkout. He didn’t know if El would be allergic to nuts, so he stuck with a simple plain Hershey’s bar and a Mars bar. The cashier didn’t notice the slight bulge in his jacket, because he kept her eyes on his face with some light flirting complete with biting his lips.</p><p>When he got outside, his heart started pounding when he saw a teenage girl probably about sixteen stop next to his car. She had clearly stopped to admire the car, but then was distracted when she saw El in the passenger seat, only a little of her face poking out beneath the blankets and watching everyone who walked by.</p><p>He needed to turn the girl’s attention away from El, because she was starting to look concerned, like she might start asking if the girl was okay, so he meandered up next to the girl and said in a sultry voice, “You like the color or the engine more?”</p><p>The girl was sufficiently distracted, and turned to look at him. “I assume it’s yours?” she asked him with an inquiring sort of smile.</p><p>“Yup,” Billy said with a flirtatious smile, leaning in closer. “If you want, sometime, I can take you for a ride.” The double entendre was clear, and the girl didn’t miss it, leaning in closer in response like she was ready to kiss him right there, without even exchanging names.</p><p>“I assume I’ll see you in school?” Billy grinned, leaning back slowly even as he ran his tongue across his bottom lip suggestively.</p><p>“Yeah,” the girl said breathlessly.</p><p>With a wink at the confirmation, Billy pulled back, keeping eye contact until he had to turn away to get into his car, and then he went peeling out of the lot before she could get her bearings enough to remember the girl in the passenger seat.</p><p>“Why did you look like that?” El wondered after the store had disappeared behind them.</p><p>Billy looked over at her in confusion. She had dropped the blankets from around her, and the grocery bag he’d handed her was sitting in her lap. Remembering the heating pad in his pocket, he kept one hand on the wheel and reached into his pocket with the other, tossing it into the pile with the rest of her haul.</p><p>“Look like what?” he asked her.</p><p>“Like you were going to eat her,” El said matter-of-factly.</p><p>Billy couldn’t help barking a laugh at that. “I s’pose in a way that was the point,” he drawled with a lopsided grin. “She was noticing you, so I pulled her attention away so she’d forget about you. You didn’t want to be noticed, right?”</p><p>El was quiet for a moment, and then she said softly, “Thank you.”</p><p>“No problem, kid,” Billy sighed. “Now, where am I headed? I don’t know where you live.”</p><p>She gave him directions to some little cabin in the middle of the woods, which only raised the creepy alarms ringing in his head. She lived alone with a grown man who told her it wasn’t safe for anyone to see her, left alone all day long for – apparently – 348 days now, didn’t seem to have clothes of her own, and was socially awkward enough that Billy couldn’t help worrying about something like – brain damage or some shit. She was somehow both jaded and innocent, naïve but wise, and Billy didn’t know what to make of it. And Billy was weak because he never fought back against Neil, but he thought to himself that if this Hopper was hurting El in <em>any </em>way, he might have to hide a body out in these woods. The idea of anyone harming this little girl who was almost half his size sent a red hot anger boiling in his gut, the same as when anyone threatened Max back in California.</p><p>He decided then that he would have to stay at her cabin for a little bit – tell her that he could keep her company maybe, so she wasn’t so lonely, and just happen to stay long enough that he could meet this “Hopper” guy and evaluate whether he needed to be hiding from the law here in Hawkins.</p><p>When they got to the cabin though, he saw a brown police Blazer parked haphazardly several yards from the cabin, the door thrown open. At first he was relieved, because if this Hopper guy had called the police when he found El missing, then all of El’s rules must be just a quirky part of the way they lived, and Billy didn’t need to worry.</p><p>But then when El saw the car, she exclaimed, “Hop!” and Billy was hit with the sudden realization that her guardian – or whatever Hopper was – was in the police, and if anything fishy was going on it would be a lot more difficult to do anything about it that he could get away with.</p><p>Before Billy could grab her or tell her to stop, to hold back until Billy could assess what was going on here, El was unbuckling herself and tumbling out of the car before he had even come to a full stop.</p><p>“<em>Shit</em>,” he muttered expressively to himself as she darted up to the cabin, seeming to hop over a wire or something across her path just as a large man with a bushy mustache appeared in the open doorway of the cabin.</p><p>“Home early!” he heard El exclaim in delight as he threw the car into park and jumped out quickly to meet this Hopper guy.</p><p>But Hopper wasn’t paying attention to El; his gaze had settled on Billy, and Billy’s heart jumped at the <em>very </em>familiar expression of anger on the older man’s face as he thundered his way over to him.</p><p>He told himself he had no time to move, but really if he was honest with himself, he had already considered that this guy could take out his anger on Billy and be less steamed if he was going to go after El, so he would take it from him just as he took it for Max so that Neil didn’t go after her.</p><p>And so he didn’t fight back when the man – Hopper, his name tag said, as though El’s reaction hadn’t confirmed that this was the “Hop” that she lived with – grabbed him by the lapel of his jacket and shoved him against the car.</p><p>“Who the hell are you?” the man growled, eyes dark and angry. “<em>Where</em> did you take my daughter?”</p><p>Billy was surprised enough that Hopper hadn’t just immediately gone in fists swinging that he just drawled, “Name’s Billy, Officer.”</p><p>“Hop!” El shouted, coming closer to them and sounding upset at the altercation. “<em>Don’t!</em>”</p><p>“It’s fine, El,” Billy called firmly, and because his eyes were fixed on Hopper’s he could see the surprise flit through them at his words, but he paid it no mind. He didn’t want El to see anything that might happen, just like he kept Max from seeing the worst of it with Neil. “Just having a chat – go warm up your heating pad in the microwave.”</p><p>“What the <em>hell </em>kind of…” Hopper started, now looking confused as well as angry, which was never a good sign because confusion only fed into anger, in Billy’s experience.</p><p>But El had ignored Billy and now shoved her small body in between the two of them, facing Hopper and pushing him away insistently, keeping her back toward Billy in an unmistakable appearance of protection. It was strange – no one had ever put themselves in a position of wanting to protect Billy before, and now this tiny twelve-year-old had taken it upon herself to do so.</p><p>“<em>No</em>, Jim!” she insisted with a huff. “Billy <em>good</em>!”</p><p>Billy had never been called <em>good </em>before.</p><p>“El, why are you even <em>outside</em>,” Hopper started, still looking upset but at least less fueled by rage now.</p><p>El interrupted again. “You weren’t answering!” she exclaimed. “I was bleeding and scared and Billy helped me.”</p><p>“Bleeding – El, <em>what</em>…”</p><p>This time it was Billy who interrupted with a simple, “She had her first period. Thought she was dying. I found her wandering and took her to get some stuff to help.”</p><p>Hopper had whitened and then went red with unmistakable awkwardness and embarrassment at the mention of “lady issues”, but as soon as Billy mentioned getting the supplies the awkwardness disappeared to be replaced with a healthy amount of fear and – again, the anger.</p><p>“You went into <em>town</em>?” he hissed at her, and El glared, not looking cowed at all as he continued, “What the <em>hell</em>, El? That’s a <em>risk</em>, and we don’t <em>take</em> risks, because they’re <em>stupid</em>.”</p><p>“Hey!” Billy interrupted, pulling El by the arm and shoving her behind him so that he was almost chest to chest with the older man, because Hopper was looking a little too angry for his taste and he didn’t need El to protect him – not from <em>that</em>.</p><p>“You don’t talk down to her like that,” Billy said fiercely, jabbing a finger into the cop’s chest. “And you don’t lay a damn <em>finger </em>on her. What else did you expect her to do, huh? She thought she was <em>dying</em>, and she went looking for you because she needed help. And now you’re going to focus on how some backwoods idiot <em>might</em> have seen her, and – what? Your little kidnapping plan would be foiled? Someone would find out she exists and want to take her away, is that it?</p><p>“I’ve got news for you, <em>pal</em>,” Billy sneered, hands clenched into fists at his sides, ready to strike at the first sign, “I’ve dealt with <em>far </em>worse than some bumbling <em>cop </em>in assfuck <em>nowhere</em>, so if I think for even a <em>second </em>that you’ve laid a hand on her I’ve got <em>no</em> problem kicking your ass.”</p><p>He vaguely noted El laying a gentle hand in the crook of his elbow, like she was prepared to hold him back but knew she didn’t need to at least right now, but honestly Billy was more focused on examining every <em>inch </em>of Hopper’s expression, waiting for that flicker that meant he was going to attack, that he would strike out at him or at El – Billy was prepared for anything.</p><p>But although irritation remained, the anger faded into something like understanding and even remorse as he took in the protectiveness Billy was putting out in El’s defense. Hopper took a couple of steps back, even putting his hands up to show he meant no harm, which Billy maybe only ten percent believed.</p><p>“I think there’s been a misunderstanding here on both sides,” Hopper said carefully, like he was choosing his words. Billy scoffed mentally at the words – he’d heard variations of it from Neil’s own lips the few times someone had caught him beating his son, and he didn’t trust it any more now from this man. “I don’t hurt El – I’ve <em>never</em> hurt her, and I would hurt anyone else who tried.”</p><p>“Hopper good too,” El piped up behind Billy. He didn’t turn to look at her, still leery of Hopper if he let down his guard, despite her words. After all, she’d called <em>him </em>good, and he wouldn’t consider <em>himself</em> good so clearly her perception was skewed.</p><p>“I didn’t kidnap her, either,” Hopper went on. “It’s – complicated.”</p><p>“Hop saved me from bad men,” El said, scooting around to stand next to him. He could see her huge eyes staring up at him from the corner of his eye as he kept his gaze on Hopper. “Saved me from Papa. Papa hurt me, Hop doesn’t. Hop is better.”</p><p>Billy still didn’t understand, but he didn’t think he was going to. By now though the anger seemed to have faded completely from Hopper’s frame, and not in the way it did with Neil, how he would keep it contained like a snake until company left and he would strike with all the venom at his disposal. Billy thought that Hopper’s anger might have been borne of fear, rather than hate, and that didn’t make it more forgivable but that did make it more likely that he wouldn’t strike out – especially as the fear was now leaving at the confirmation that El was safe, and that Billy had only been out to help her.</p><p>But before he could say anything either way, El directed her next words at Hop, and with a simple, “Billy’s papa hurts him too” he was suddenly angrily wondering why he couldn’t have just left her to fend for herself after finding out she wasn’t dying. It wasn’t cold enough out that she’d freeze to death; he could’ve told her to go back to her cabin and use what was there until Hopper had come back from work and would be able to help. This is what he got for trying to be <em>helpful</em>.</p><p>“Kid – Billy,” Hopper corrected himself, his expression suddenly a lot more sympathetic than it had been a moment before. “Is there anything you want to talk to me about?”</p><p>And Billy <em>hated</em> that question, because it was always asked by teachers and guidance counselors in that expectant voice, the one that said they thought they were the first person to ever be concerned enough to ask about the bruises and the cuts and the broken bones that happened too often to be roughhousing with other boys, and that the simple act of <em>asking </em>would be enough to get him to break down and tell all, and they would come in like some swooping hero and get him out of the damn house. Even if Billy thought it would work, that <em>this </em>would be the time that something would actually come of it, and even though he was <em>pissed </em>at Max for what she’d revealed to his dad that forced the move out here after the worst beating of his life, he would never leave her behind in that house.</p><p>So he kept his mouth zipped shut on the matter, giving the cop the flattest look he could manage and drawled, “<em>No</em>, Officer, everything’s fine.”</p><p>“It’s Chief, actually,” Hopper said, like that changed fucking <em>anything</em>.</p><p>“Friends don’t lie,” El piped up quietly, tugging on the sleeve of his jacket.</p><p>Billy jerked his arm away, out of her grasp, purposely ignoring the hurt look that flickered over her expression. “Yeah, <em>are </em>we friends?” he said sarcastically.</p><p>Apparently the girl didn’t understand rhetorical questions – and honestly, after the last couple of hours, he wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case – because she nodded and said “Yes.”</p><p>Billy snorted, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny it verbally, not in the face of trust peering up at him from the eyes of a little girl. Shaking his head to himself, he moved around El, jerking his car door open.</p><p>Before getting in though, he turned back and said like he didn’t care, “I’ll be looking in on you, El. Make sure everything is going alright here.” He looked up, meeting Hopper’s gaze, just <em>daring </em>him with a look to protest or make known that Billy wasn’t welcome back there.</p><p>El was beaming when he looked back at her, apparently excited at the prospect of a new friend. He winced mentally at the thought. Shit, she was younger than Max, and he’d cut off that friendship weeks ago. What kind of image was he going to have if it got out that he was <em>friends </em>with a twelve-year-old? He was almost glad then that she was such a secret – he didn’t have to fess up to <em>anything </em>about her.</p><p>“Go take your meds, drink some water,” Billy directed, voice gruff as he got into the car. The window was rolled down, so he closed the door as he turned the key in the ignition. “I’ll see you in a couple of days, a’right?”</p><p>She nodded happily, and he didn’t wait for further response. Backing his car from the trip wire (which honestly, what the fuck?) he spun back to the direction he’d come. As he peeled away as fast as he was able over the leaves and branches, he glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing as Hopper gave El a relieved hug. His heart tugged at it, reassured that El was <em>probably </em>okay in that house. Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to keep his word about visiting her, though. She probably needed some company, alone in that cabin as she was.</p><p>Grumbling to himself, he ran a hand through his hair, making sure it was still as teased to perfection as ever. It wasn’t, but he hadn’t been able to do his full routine that morning after getting into it with Neil. Whatever. Not like he was going to see anyone else.</p><p>He glanced at the clock on the dash. It was barely one o’ clock – Neil wouldn’t be expecting him back at least till dark. He had a few more hours to kill.</p><p>He wasn’t going to stick around in the forest, though. Clearly it wasn’t as empty as he would’ve thought, and he really didn’t need to be helping out any other prepubescent kids that day. One was <em>more</em> than enough.</p><p>Somehow, the thought was more fond than he’d meant it to be.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Now remember how awkward Hopper was when he was talking about simple <em>dating</em>, and you will know why he never thought to explain periods to his growing daughter. Billy really did Hopper a favor here, lol.</p><p>I may turn this into a series if I'm hit with more inspiration. Or rather, motivation. I have a couple of ideas, but we'll see if I ever get around to writing them down, haha. For now, enjoy this little tidbit of what could be.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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